Welcome. This little part of the web will be my life at Willie's Repair. Not really the day to day work but the other things in life. Projects, past and present, special goings on, info about the automotive world or anything else I care to associate automotive.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

25 years ago today

My father opened Willie's Repair Service. May 7th 1983. Andthen he promptly took the day off and went Trout Fishing.Today, 25 years later, he went Trout Fishing.

I can kind of remember the details pretty well. At 9 yearsold it was a really cool time for me. Dad rented a smallwooden garage that was at the time 40 some years old I'dguess. It had a wood stove, one in ground hoist that leakedterrible and lighting that would make a bat think it wasnight time. A few of the prominent business men in ourcommunity where the nudge to Dad to open up for himself. ThePresident of the Bank made sure to show him the way and gavehim one big piece of advice that he lives by to this day.Take days off, take vacations and don't let the business runyou, run the business. Dad had been the service manager at aCenex station in one town over for years and had a bigfollowing from both Mazomanie and Black Earth. Before thathe worked at the local Mobil. Before that he worked at awhole bunch of different Farm Implement shops.

When he put in his notice he also took a ad out in the localpaper. "Where's the Mechanic". A spook on the popular"Where's the Beef" ad that was running at the time.

I can remember cars lined up the street waiting to get in. Ican remember him working from sun up to sun down to getgoing. I can remember cutting wood all Saturday with him tohave enough to heat the poorly insulated garage for the nextweek. I can remember stacking that wood all Sunday for him.There where times it was so cold in that shop he would puthis boots in the refrigerator to keep them warm. No bathroom in the building. I can remember a pile of yellow snowin the back that never stopped growing until spring camealong. Then in summer I can remember coming down on my bikeand watching him sweat through the day. He came fromsturdier stock I am guessing because there is no way I couldhave done it.

Five years later he had enough money to start looking for alocation to build the shop he wanted. He tried to purchase adowntown site where the old grocery store burnt down but theVillage would have no part of a Auto repair shop there. Norwould the houses nearby. He found a location right next tothe Village office he purchased knowing he wouldn't buildthere. He prepared all the paper work and presented it tothe Village. They went ballistic since he had approvals alldone through the state to put his shop right next to them. Alittle blackmailing I would say it is caused in sued and theVillage bought the site from him and gave him a lot in thenewly made industrial park. Dad figured it would go that wayand was happy. In 1988 he opened the new shop where we aretoday. He built the shop so in case he fell on hard times hecould rent half out but that was never needed. He took onhis first employee in 1991. A smart arsed little punk whothought he knew it all. I guess I was and still am a littlesmart arse :) In 1992 that employee went full time and wentto Auto tech school at Madison Area Technical College(MATC).

By 1999 the shop had grown to small for the two of us so theextra 30x45 feet where added to give us more room to workand play. The new addition also allowed us to clean thingsup and start looking better in the eyes of the community.

Now it's 2008 and Dad is semi retired. As he says he onlyworks half days now, 12 hours which is pretty funny but goesover well. He still comes in at 6 am and leaves around 6 pmbut it's not all work. He enjoys his time out at the farmand fishing. The young punk tries to keep up with the workload and become the owner his Dad is but knows it will neverbe. But keep trying is all he can do.

So, 25 years later and I think the old guy did pretty well.His shop doesn't have a whole lot of debt load. His house ispaid for, his cars are paid for. He enjoys working when hewants and playing when he wants. His punk kid was able toget married, have kids, buy a house and too many toysbecause of the shop. He also has hopes for a new house onthe farm this next year. All because of Willie' Repair.

His other two sons also moved back home this past year.Danny out of the USMC is going to tech school to be a AutoTech and one day work along side myself. He is also goingback into the Army Reserve for Diesel Mechanics. Troy isfresh back from Boston with a Masters Degree in BusinessCommunications and Property Management and brings a wholenew outlook on how it can be or could be done. He will belooking for a job in Madison and surely helping me in thefuture with his knowledge and background. They both haveprojects at the shop and spend free time working around us.All the Ruland boys back together figured out how we canrule the world. It's a good time right now, that's for sure.